Rupert Murdoch to decide over News Corp split

Rupert Murdoch and senior executives are to decide whether News Corp should be split into two separate public companies. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Rupert Murdoch and other senior News Corporation executives will decide whether to split its entertainment and publishing businesses into two separately listed companies at a board meeting in New York on Wednesday, according to reports.

A News Corp spokeswoman in London declined to comment on Wednesday morning, but a board meeting is scheduled to review figures for the company's 2011/12 financial year, which runs to the end of June.

News Corp has retained Goldman Sachs and Blair Effron's Centerview to handle the split process, according to people familiar with the plan. The possibility of breaking up News Corp has been under discussion for a "considerable period of time" but no final decision has been made, said a source with knowledge of the situation.

The three editors of Murdoch's British titles – Dominic Mohan of the Sun, James Harding of the Times and John Witherow of the Sunday Times – were summoned to New York for a briefing on Tuesday. Tom Mockridge, who is currently chief executive of News International, is also in New York.

Claire Enders of UK media research firm Enders Analysis told MediaGuardian that the proposals are at an early stage and that the asset structure for the separate listed companies has yet to be analysed.

One of the big difficulties, Enders said, is where to house the unquantifiable liabilities arising out of the phone-hacking scandal that led to the abrupt closure of the News of the World last summer.

Already News Corp has spent £100m on legal bills and damages and this will continue to rise, with UK subsidiary News International recently admitting it could face up to 500 claims in the civil courts. Several current and former News International journalists also face possible criminal prosecution over alleged phone hacking and illegal payments to police and other public officials.

Enders said the floating off the publishing business, which would include book publisher HarperCollins and the Dow Jones financial news and information agency, as well as News International and News Corp's other newspapers in the US and Australia, will mean it may no longer benefit from "Rupert's blank cheque" and would be unattractive to investors who would see it as a "zombie company".

Murdoch could use some of News Corp's $10bn-plus cash reserves to fund the publishing unit and may also try and ringfence the phone-hacking liabilities by announcing a "knock-out" contingency fund for related costs, according to insiders at News International.

Staff at News International's Wapping headquarters in east London are concerned that the move could be the beginning of the end for the publishing operation in its present form. "We don't know what this means," said one employee. "Who in their right minds would buy us? We are a basket case."

Others insiders said there is a belief that the News Corp split could result in a new privately owned publishing business being established, run by Rupert Murdoch's eldest son Lachlan.

"The idea that Rupert would go to all this trouble to flog the newspapers just isn't plausible," said one insider.

Another insider added: "Why would anyone buy assets like this when you don't know what the final bill is? I would not be surprised if the Murdochs buy the shares back and take it into private ownership again with Lachlan at the helm. It would be the best possible outcome for the British papers."

Lachlan was once seen as the heir apparent to his father and was made deputy chief operating officer at News Corp in New York – the position his brother James now holds – but walked out seven years ago after falling out with Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. He returned to Australia to set up a media investment company and is now chairman of commercial TV broadcaster Ten Network.

Unlike James, who was in charge of News International until returning to New York earlier this year, Lachlan is seen as a chip off the old block, with a passion for newspapers like his father.

It was already seen as significant that it was Lachlan, not James, who accompanied his father to London to launch the Sunday edition of the Sun earlier this year and to calm nerves in Wapping following the arrest of several current and former journalists in relation to allegations of illegal payments to public officials.

Chase Carey, News Corp's chief operating officer, and the man who would assume control if his octogenarian boss "went under a bus", said earlier this year: "Rupert has said he'd be thrilled to have Lachlan back."

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.